Announcing Make the Cut: Accent Print Edition!–We Have A Winner!

It’s time to get creative for another edition of our Make the Cut Contest! This time, we’re asking you to design a print for an item that lends itself to a stylish twist: the scarf! That’s right — this 100% viscose ModCloth original is ready for another fab look. So, use our scarf template to compose a new pattern for this popular piece.

We’ll accept your submissions until 11:59 p.m. PT on 6/1, and then our Buying Team will choose their top 10. You can vote for and comment on those designs from 10 a.m. PT on 6/9 to 11:59 p.m. PT on 6/13 via Be the Buyer, the official host for this Make the Cut winner selection. On 6/16, we’ll announce our pattern-savvy champ here on our blog!

What will the victor nab? First, their print design will be produced on a scarf — with the their name on the tag — and sold on ModCloth.com. Plus, we’ll send the winner this piece, along with $500!

Ready to dream up some scarf-perfect prints? Go on and sketch your heart out, but be sure you read the deets below to make certain your print designs are eligible…

Contest guidelines:

Fabric prints should be designed in our scarf template here. Please note that this template is simply a blank rectangle shape scaled down to accommodate scarf seam space (imagine an unfolded scarf laid on a flat surface). Fabric prints should be designed in our scarf template

Each in-template design should include an additional close-up image of the print.

All image submissions should be no larger than 5 MB, and image resolution should be 300 DPI.

Acceptable formats are JPG and PNG. If you’re chosen as a finalist, we may request original files from you.

Print designs must be both unlicensed and undistributed at the time of submission.

Prints should be designed for the provided scarf template. The actual scarf size will be 35” x 71”. Non-print embellishments, fringes, or decorations will not be accommodated.

The winning fabric design will be screen-printed as a recurring pattern on 100% viscose material.

Sketches do not need to be in color, but it is encouraged to best convey your vision. Please note that designs should be limited to 3 – 4 color hues or variations. For example, 3 variations of green would count as 3 of your 4 colors.

If you don’t get a confirmation email after submitting, let us know at makethecutcontest@modcloth.com.

Our Buying Team will choose 10 sketches based on judging criteria. We’ll post them on Be the Buyer for community voting from 10 a.m. PT on 6/9 to 11:59 p.m. PT on 6/13.

Before announcing the winner, we’ll double-check that the Be the Buyer votes are legitimate.

You may enter via Submittable only once, but you may include sketches for up to 5 print designs. For each design, please remember to include both in-template sketches and close-up images of the print pattern.

Entrants must include a brief description of the inspiration for each print design. Visual references may be included as well.

With your submission(s), please include your first and last name as you’d like to see it appear for voting and on a clothing label. Feel free to tell us anything else about your sketches, including how you’d style the scarf if produced with your print design.

Sketches and accompanying files may be submitted up until 11:59 p.m. PT on 6/1.

Currently, this contest is only open to U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents.

Print designs will be judged on marketability, produce-ability, pattern creativity, and how well they fit with the ModCloth aesthetic.

The winner will be announced on 6/16 via the blog.

One winning sketch will be chosen, and $500 will be awarded for it.

Additional winners may be chosen at the discretion of ModCloth.

The winning design will be produced and sold on ModCloth.com, and feature the print designer’s name on the tag.

Contestants under 18 must have a parent or guardian write a letter of consent, and upload it as an attachment with your entry in Submittable (Example: If you upload 5 separate sketches and a document of your inspirations for them, then you would upload your scanned consent as file #7).

All finalists will be required to sign a Copyright Assignment Agreement, but ModCloth will only retain the rights to the winning print design.

With the rules and guidelines on your radar, it’s time to design away! Is your print destined for a ModCloth scarf with a personalized tag? Is a $500 prize in your fashion future? Only one way to know — enter!

If you have any questions, check out our legal info, or email makethecutcontest@modcloth.com.

UPDATE: After a neck and neck race for the most ‘picks’ and thousands of votes later, we’re so excited to announce the Make the Cut: Accent Print winner is…drum roll please…Angela Mills!

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75 Responses to Announcing Make the Cut: Accent Print Edition!–We Have A Winner!

Thanks for the contest opportunity! Excited to submit. I have a (silly) question – will the scarf template be posed width ways or length ways? (Will it be tall or wide) Hoping I’m making something resembling sense here

Hi there, Anne! We’re so bummed that, because of the differing production and retail laws in the US and the Canada, we’re currently only able to extend this contest to US citizens. I’m so sorry this restricts you from submitting a design. You CAN participate in the voting period from June 9th to 13th on Be the Buyer, though!

Hi there. I work a lot with watercolors, which I think looks beautiful on fabric, but I’m wondering how that would work with the 4 color variations rule, as there are a lot of subtle tone and color shifts in watercolor bleeds. Thoughts?

Hi Logan! Though we love a good watercolor print, these scarves will be screen printed and unfortunately, that creates an issue for color blending. We’d love to see your creativity shine through other mediums, though!

Hey there! I’m interested in joining this competition, but after reading the submission guidelines, I’m a little perplexed by how many files you want submitted per print design.

I understand that you need the in-template design and a close-up of said design, but when you say sketches, do you mean from our own sketchbook? Or is “sketch” referring to the in-template pdf (as in, we are to print it out and sketch by hand)?… So, for example, one design submission would have to include 3 files: in-template, close-up, and sketch?

Hello! So glad your interested! We’re asking that you either sketch or design using software a print in the provided template in additional to the close up of that print. So, in total it should be 2 files per print. Hope that helps!

This looks like so much fun! I need some clarification: is there a way to design a pattern with Adobe Illustrator using the template? Or must it be hand-sketched? I’m confused about the role of the template in this project, other than serving as a visual guide for dimensions. Do we print it and sketch on it? Thank you!!

Hi! Love that this is happening. I am so excited to enter my designs. But I have a couple questions…

Are JPEGS for sure ok? When I clicked on Submittable the guidelines said PDFs and PNGs.. Also, the image files have to be smaller than 5MB, does that mean if I enter more than one design that all of them together have to equal less than 5MB or cane each image be 5MB?

I had each file under 5MB and I had 6 files submitted in all. The total MB count came out to 12 and it submitted just fine. With as large as their template is, the quality would have to be crappy in order to make ALL images come out to under 5MB so no worries, it works with each file being under 5MB

Fun! Some good questions above, and hoping for more clarification as well…

Will the design definitely be a pattern repeat (“The winning fabric design will be screen-printed as a recurring pattern”), or can the design be printed with the full size of the scarf as the whole “canvas,” such as solid red with one image in one corner? (Giving the rectangle template of the entire/flat scarf suggests this!)

Will a submitted “sketch” of a pattern repeat then be converted to a proper pattern tile by modcloth designers? If we are able to design a true pattern repeat ourselves, are there size specs for the final pattern tile?

Hi there! Thanks so much for your questions! It’s definitely going to be a repeat pattern, but we don’t currently have the tile specs. That’s why we’d like you to design to scale in the template. The scarf starts as a natural beige, so please include desired background color as one of your 4. Hope that helps!

Open to U.S. Citizens only should be the first rule written in bold. As I had missed it the first time I finished my pattern and re-read the rules before submitting then saw that near the end. I’m in Canada.

I’m trying to upload 3 designs (6 graphic files total). I saved them as PNG, JPG, & PDF. The PDF is stated as an acceptable file type for this competition yet SUBMITTABLE will not accept them for upload. The rules state that the template must be used and the file must be created at 300DPI which is fine, and I have done that – but here’s the problem: 5MB is really a tiny size for this template size + the DPI size. I can upload all of my files right now, but my full-sized files are uploading between 19MB-25MB each and my smaller close-up files are uploading around 8-10MB each. I don’t want to get booted from the competition but something in the rules dept. has gotta give. Please advise! Thank you.

Hi there! While we’ve accepted PDF files in the past, we’re asking for either PNGs or JPEGs this time around. I’ve checked in with Submittable and it looks like entrants have been able to upload files that are up to 5MB each. If you can compress your files to at least 5MB each, then you should be able to upload them. If you are chosen as a finalist and we need a higher resolution image, we’ll be sure to send you an email requesting the additional files. Thank you so much for being thorough!

Hey Karin, hope this helps. If you are designing in Adobe Illustrator, when you click the SAVE FOR WEB button, where you can choose the file type; ie. JPEG, PNG, etc., you can also choose the compression quality as well, which is under the file type. It will say you can have low, medium, high, very high, or maximum. I chose high or medium for mine and it brought the file size down greatly. This way it’s the correct size, but just scaled down for compression and you don’t really lose loss of clarity either. Hope this helps!

Hello! I just have a quick question, I’m trying to print the template, but sometimes it comes out in half and sometimes it comes out very tiny, I was wondering if you could please tell me the size of the template so I can print it out correctly! Thank you so much!

I have a quick question. The way I’m designing my fabric is first by making a sketch, and using my computer to repeat the image. I know that the template is blank, so if I don’t use that same “template,” as long as the file is 300 dpi and less than 5 MB, will my design still be accepted? Or is there a certain length and width size that my design must be? Thanks!

Can you please clarify how the winner is chosen? Will Modcloth be selecting the winner, or is it up for votes on Facebook? (I’m really hoping you say Modcloth will select the winner! I hate the Facebook popularity contests). Thank you!!

I agree! I am not on Facebook very often and only accept “friends” who I truly want to keep in touch with, so the Facebook popularity contests aren’t quite my cup of tea…I would love to have to Modcloth choose their favorite designs!

When I printed out the template, nothing came out, and I know that the template is blank. I’m creating my design by sketching it out and then using my computer. All of my images are 300 dpi and less than 5 MB. So is there a certain size my designs have to be, and if so, how do I get my design on the blank template?

Enter a cover letter including a short biographical statement. – what does this mean ? My confusion comes from the fact – this is asked not in the attachment section but a section you simply type. How much writing is expected there?

Hi! I entered the contest and today was suppose to be the day all the prints would be up on the Be The Buyer page, but I cant find the submissions for this contest. I looked through every page and could not find it, is it on a different part of the website? Or could you please send me the link for it?